Money Matters Parent Notes

Why might it be of interest?

In this document we are covering financial topics that are of interest to parents of disabled young people:

• DWP Appointee
• DLA / PIP
• Mental Capacity – or not
• Bank accounts
• Deputyship vs Power of Attorney
• Child trust funds
• Wills and Trusts
• Thresholds for benefits
• Minimum income guarantee / DRE
• Universal Credit
  • Work Capability Assessment
  • Limited Capability for Work / Work Related Activities
  • UC and students
  • Earning while receiving UC
• Free prescriptions and other stuff

DWP Appointee

• If a young person is receiving DLA
  • Approaching age 16 – about 4-5 months before their birthday
  • DWP will write and ask if they can manage their own benefits
  • You may be visited or have a phone call
• Letter comes with a form:
  • Why can’t the yp manage their own benefits
  • Bank account details
• Only ONE appointee
• ONLY allows you to manage their benefits – not other income
  • Includes PIP, UC, housing benefit
• Issued with a certificate – BF57 – to certify you as appointee
  • Keep the original safe and make copies

As an appointee you’re responsible for making and maintaining any benefit claims. You must:

• sign the benefit claim form
• tell the benefit office about any changes which affect how much the claimant gets
• spend the benefit (which is paid directly to you) in the claimant’s best interests
• tell the benefit office if you stop being the appointee, for example the claimant can now manage their own affairs

This is a straightforward process

Don’t know of anyone being refused as an appointee if that’s what the parent wishes

DLA / PIP

• When a young person is approaching 16, or recently turned16, they may be invited to apply for PIP
• This will happen regardless of the date of the DLA award – even if the DLA award was a lifetime award
• It appears that young people are being invited to apply for PIP around their 16^th birthday
• You MUST apply when ‘invited’ or their DLA will stop
• There will be a return date in the invitation letter
• It is ESSENTIAL not to miss this date
• If you can’t complete the form by the date you MUST phone and ask for an extension

If your young person has not been receiving DLA now might be a good time to look at whether they might be eligible for PIP

PIP is awarded at 2 levels:  standard or enhanced

No split between day and night care

Standard PIP is £72.65 and you need 8 points

Enhanced PIP is £108.55 and you need 12 points

Standard mobility is £28.70

Enhanced mobility is £75.75

10 daily living questions, eg:

• Preparing food
• Managing medication and therapy
• Washing and bathing
• Managing money
• Communicating, reading, socialising

2 mobility questions:

• Planning and making a journey
• Moving around, walking

The application form itself offers advice on how to assess whether a person can carry out an activity, eg:

• Can they do it safely
• In a timely manner
• As often as needed

Your young person may be called for a face to face interview

Guides:

• PIP Points table
• B&W guide

No lifetime awards but reviews can be light touch or extended

Mental Capacity

• A young person does not have – or not have – mental capacity as a blanket decision
• From age 16 the mental capacity act assumes that a young person can make their own decisions
• This slightly conflicts with the Children and Families Act where the parents have parental responsibility until a young person turns 18

The upshot is that you should expect professionals to want to involve your young person as much as possible in meetings about their future and supporting them to express their views.

If a young person is deemed to have mental capacity to make a decision then the decision is theirs to make – even if it appears to be an unwise decision.

We start from a position of presuming capacity.

If there is doubt about their mental capacity then an assessment should be carried out by a relevant professional to determine whether they can make the decision under consideration.

A young person may have mental capacity to make some decision but not others.

The MCA says a person is unable to make a decision if they cannot:

• understand the information relevant to the decision
• retain that information
• use or weigh up that information as part of the process of making the decision
• communicate their decision

A young person must be supported to make their own decisions wherever possible.

• This could mean considering the best time of day
• If we leave making the decision for now will they be able to make it in a week or so
• How best to communicate the situation to the young person

Any decision must be in THEIR best interests

And the least restrictive option, eg the least intrusive

Best Interests Principle

If a person has been assessed as lacking capacity then any action taken, or any decision made for, or on behalf of that person, must be made in his or her best interests.

The person who has to make the decision is known as the ‘decision-maker’ and normally will be the carer responsible for the day-to-day care, or a professional such as a doctor, nurse or social worker where decisions about treatment, care arrangements or accommodation need to be made.

Bank Accounts

What bank accounts you have and where benefit money is paid is relevant regardless of whether a young person has capacity to manage their own financial affairs.

If they have an account in their sole name you have no legal right to access that account – even if they manage their money unwisely or are unable to manage it at all.

Your young person may be happy to let you help or manage it entirely and that’s fine – until they change their mind!

Ideally, you should open a joint account

• Before they are 18
  • As once 18 they would have to be able to, and agree to, consent to the opening of the account
• Some banks are open to this but others insist on consent from age 16
• You may have to use a bank you don’t currently use

Caveat:  this might not be wise if your young person might misuse the bank account as you would be jointly responsible.

You need to be trying to keep your young person’s benefits separate from your own money – especially if you receive benefits yourself.

You don’t want to find yourself in a position of struggling to show what is your money and what is theirs.

UC can, and do, ask for a review where you have to send in bank statements.

Limiting their access to money:

Have 2 bank accounts:

• One to receive benefits (and other income); paying bills, etc
• One for day to day spending
  • Online, with an app, transactions show up immediately
  • Basic version – no overdraft
  • Easy to load funds
  • This can help with budgeting
  • Any mistakes or fraud will be limited
  • Carers and care providers would prefer not to have access to a person’s money

If your young person doesn’t have capacity to open a bank account you could open one in your name – I have done this for my daughter.

Although all of this is done on-line DO NOT be tempted to ‘fudge’ the consent – you always have to give consent and if that can’t be your young person then you shouldn’t be opening the account.

Family Connect:

An organisation called Hope Macy have developed a bank account service to help parents help their young person manage their money.

Fully regulated – the service was developed with Lloyds bank

You don’t need to open new bank accounts

The vulnerable young person designates a trusted person – or more than one

The trusted person can only see what’s going on – they can’t make payments, stop payments or complete any other transactions

Basically, it’s read-only banking enabling you to monitor the vulnerable person’s transactions

And spotting potential mistakes, fraud, etc

This is for our more able young people who want to manage their own money but need some support to do so

https://www.hopemacy.com/

Deputyship or Power of Attorney?

Both are ways of managing your young person’s affairs – both property/finance and personal welfare.

They are mutually exclusive

To be a person’s deputy that person must be deemed NOT TO HAVE capacity to manage their own affairs.

To have a person’s PoA that person must be deemed TO HAVE capacity to agree to give you their PoA.

Power of Attorney

Don’t assume that your young person does not have capacity to grant you Power of Attorney.

The situation can be explained in simple terms using language they are familiar with.

If they can take in the information and recall it a few minutes later and communicate that they agree that you can help them manage their money, for example, then it’s possible that they are able to grant you their PoA.

• Choose a time of day when they are relaxed and ready to engage with you
• Start talking about money, where it comes from, how they like to spend it
• Explain that you already look after it and ask if they would like you to continue to look after their money
• Bring up another topic for a few minutes
• A few minutes later you might ask them to explain what you have just told them
• There can’t be a definitive list of questions or way to approach this as it will vary so much from young person to young person
• Spend as much time as you need and have someone take notes as you go. Ideally, the Certificate Provider (see below) should be present

A person can have more than one PoA and as part of the process an independent person has to agree that the young person has capacity to grant you PoA – this person is called a certificate provider.  They might be a professional, eg a solicitor if you are using one, or a family friend (not actual family) who has known the young person for over 2 years.

You can use a solicitor or complete the forms online – they have to be printed off for signatures – so the person has to be able to sign.

A person can give you permission to manage all their affairs or just some of them.

Property and Finance:  ready to go once approved

Health and Welfare:  can only be used when the young person loses capacity

What does that mean?  While a young person is able they must have the opportunity to make decisions about their health and welfare – even if you disagree or a decision seems unwise.  You can only make the decision for them when they are unable to do so – even if they are only temporarily unable to do so.

For example, if they were undergoing a small procedure under anaesthetic and the surgeon needed a decision you would be able to make that decision but if the question had come up before they were knocked out then it would have been the young person’s decision.

You need quite a lot of details about names, bank accounts, etc so read up on what you need before you start the process.

Deputyship

If it is clear that your young person does not have capacity to manage their financial affairs or make decisions about their health then you may want to apply for a deputyship.

You may not NEED a deputyship.  (But you may prefer to have one).

If your young person’s only income is from benefits then you can manage this money by being their DWP Appointee.

If they have a small amount of savings it’s probably OK for you to manage that as well without further authorisation but if they have an income or more significant savings then you probably will need a deputyship.

Property and Financial Affairs:  includes most financial matters but excludes buying/selling property and managing some types of investment.

This deputyship would allow you to open a bank account for your young person.

Personal Welfare:  this is the one parents are usually keen to have so they can continue to manage their young person’s health decisions.

It’s also the one the courts rarely grant as they take the view that health decisions should be made via the Best Interests process.  Health decisions will nearly always be taken, or at least led, by a health professional.

Best Interests means that everyone relevant to the decision should be included in the decision making process.

Figures from a couple of years ago:

• 15,000+ property and financial affairs granted
• 400 personal welfare granted

One-off decision or ongoing?

You can apply to the Court of Protection for a one-off decision

Accessing a CTF would be an example of this

Or you can apply to be an ongoing deputy

The forms you have to complete and the process is the same either way.

The court can decide to give you an ongoing deputyship even if you are applying for a one-off decision.

Several forms including:

• the application – what exactly are you applying for
• assessment of mental capacity
• naming people to be informed – people who have a right to know what’s happening
• deputy declaration – detailed information about the proposed deputy or deputies
• financial information about the young person

In total the forms run to about 50 pages

Annual reporting:  if you have an ongoing deputyship you have to submit a report to the Office of the Public Guardian once a year.

I have been told that this is not especially onerous but it is difficult to find out for sure.

Child Trust Fund

If your young person has the capacity to sign the forms to release the fund then you don’t have a problem.

If your young person does not have the capacity to sign the forms then you potentially do have a problem.

Some CTF managers will release the money to a parent with evidence of the young person’s need for this support.  Others won’t and will insist on a CoP deputyship.

It’s likely that the amount of money in the fund will influence this!

A parent recently accessed her young person’s CTF by providing:

• Health and welfare deputyship order
• A letter from social care – written to support their Universal Credit application saying that they didn’t have capacity to work
• Their passports
• The DWP Appointee letter
• The young person’s hospital passport and a long letter explaining their disability, that they don’t understand money, what they would like to use the money for

If there’s over £6000 in the trust it will affect any Universal Credit claim you might make on behalf of your young person.

Wills and Trusts

Your will is a way to leave money to your young person while still protecting their financial interests.

In most cases you will probably need to consult a solicitor

There could be serious consequences of getting it wrong

If you leave money directly to your young person you need to consider:

• Can they manage their financial affairs
• Are they susceptible to financial abuse (I’d assume they are)
• The amount may affect means tested benefits – such as UC or housing benefit

We’ll talk about threshold for benefits and social care packages

You might think you can leave the money to another family member who will take care of your young person, but….

• What happens if that person goes bankrupt
• They die – do they have a will or are they intestate
• They divorce – the money is technically theirs
• Family fall out

You would have no control over the money and it may not end up benefitting your young person as you imagined.

If you die intestate your money and assets may not end up divided as you would wish.

A will allows you to leave money/assets directly to people who can manage them and in a trust for people who cannot manage them.

There are lots of different trusts – and you may need something different or more than one depending on your wealth and family situation.

But to protect a disabled young person we would mostly be talking about:

• Discretionary trust
• Disabled person’s trust

Which one is best for you is something only a professional can tell you as there are tax implications depending on the amounts in the trusts.

Beneficiaries:  trusts need to have trustees to administer the trust and beneficiaries to benefit from the trust.

As a rule there should be more than one beneficiary or the money in the trust will be deemed to belong to the sole beneficiary.

One way of ensuring that is to name a charity along with any other children, family, friends, etc.

This does not mean these beneficiaries will definitely benefit from the trust – it just means that as there’s more than one person who could benefit the money can’t be deemed to belong to the disabled young person.

Trustees:  Family or friends are ideal but organisations like Mencap can act as a trustee if there is no-one else.

Letter of Wishes:

• This is where you can give your executors and trustees guidance about what you would like the money to be used for
• Helpful where things might change so it wouldn’t be a good idea to put in the actual will
• List of gifts

When to set up a trust?

A trust is usually set up in the will – so comes into effect when the person dies, but:

• If you have pensions, death in service benefits, life cover you may want a trust already set up to specify in the nomination forms
• If you have other people, eg grandparents, who might want to leave your young person money

Use a lawyer specialising in this area:  STEP, SFE, CILEX

It is essential to get this right as you don’t want the assets in the trust to be deemed to belong to your young person which would affect benefits claims.

Can assets held in trust grow?

A trust is a way to hold items for the benefit of someone, yet the account itself doesn’t earn interest or change value. Only the assets within the trust fund can gain interest or provide other investment returns, not the trust fund itself.

Some accounts do gain interest, like a savings account or investments, while others, like property or collectibles, do not.

Thresholds for benefits, social care

• PIP is not means tested so there are no thresholds which might affect what a person receives
• UC is means tested
• ESA is a legacy benefit but it is means tested
• Housing benefit is means tested
• Social care is means tested

Universal Credit

Under £6000 is disregarded – no affect on your benefit

Between £6000 and £16,000 it will be assumed that:

• For every £250 (or part £250) you are deemed to receive £4.35 in income (it’s irrelevant whether you actually do)
  • So if you have £7,000 in savings:
  • £6,000 is ignored
  • £1,000 is taken into account
  • For each £250 you are deemed to have income of £4.35
  • So for £1,000 this means 4 x £4.35 which equals £17.40
  • This is the amount that will be deducted from your UC

Over £16,000 – you are not entitled to UC

For UC purposes savings are counted as any money you can get hold of relatively easily, or financial products that can be sold on. These include:

• cash and money in bank or building society accounts, including current accounts that don’t pay interest
• National Savings & Investments savings accounts, and Premium Bonds
• stocks and shares
• property, which isn’t your main home
  • under certain circumstances, other properties you own but don’t live in might be disregarded

Other savings and capital are disregarded, including:

• personal possessions, such as jewellery, furniture or a car
• value of any pre-paid funeral plans
• life insurance policies that haven’t been cashed in
• insurance claims will be ignored for six months if used to replace or repair

Money in a pension pot will not be counted as an asset as you have no access to it until you are of pensionable age and then income from the pension pot will be counted as income for benefits purposes.

This is a link to further information on the government website:  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-money-savings-and-investments

 Social Care

These figures are changing significantly at some point (was supposed to be October 2023) but these are the current rates:

• Savings or assets over £23,250 – you will fully fund your care package
• Savings or assets below £14,250 – ignored
• Savings between £14,250 and £23,250 will incur a contribution towards your package:
  • For every £250 of capital it is assumed you have £1 of income
  • This is payable towards the cost of your care package

These figures are all due to change – should have changed in 2023 – but haven’t so far and there’s no date about when they will change or exactly what will be included in the ‘lifetime’ contributions.

Contributing to your care package:

Most people will have to make a contribution towards their care package

This comes as a bit of a surprise to many parents

The council carry out a financial assessment

They disregard certain amounts

What’s left after the disregards is the amount of the contribution

For example, your benefits, PIP and UC, add up to £250 per week

• Your disregards add up to £195 a week
• Your contribution will be £55 per week

It should be noted that the contribution towards the package is not related to the size of the package

So, it will be the same amount whether the package is for 10 hours a week or 24/7.

Minimum Income Guarantee and Disability Related Expenses

Let’s talk more about how much of your money you can keep when you have a social care package.

 Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG)

Each year the government sets an amount known as the minimum income guarantee.

This the amount of money the government says you must be left with for your daily living expenses after any contribution towards your social care package.  We’re talking today about people living in their own home – whether that’s a home they rent or own or supported living.

I am also only talking today about the figures for a single young person – there are different allowances for couples and couples with children, pensioners, etc

These figures are allowances against your actual income from benefits – this isn’t money you actually receive but money you are allowed to keep before making a contribution towards your social care package.  (2024-2025)

 

Over 18 but under 25	£87.65
Over 25 but under pension credit age	£110.60
In receipt of disability premium	£48.80
In receipt of enhanced disability premium	£23.85

Disability premium:  most of our young people will meet the criteria which is the same as it would have been for income support

Enhanced disability premium:  if you are in receipt of enhanced PIP or DLA high rate care

Example:

Young person over 25	£110.60
Disability premium	£48.80
Enhanced disability premium	£23.85
Total	£183.25

LB Richmond allows £20 towards disability related expenses bringing the total up to £203.25.

If the young person gets ESA at £159.05 and PIP at £108.55 their weekly income is £267.60.

Their contribution is the difference between £203 (MIG) and £267 (income) = £64.35 per week.

What other expenses?

There may be other expenses to offset.

For example a young person living in supported living who makes a contribution towards household bills of £25 a week can offset that £25.

If a young person lives at home they can be allocated their share of the council tax bill

Disability related expenses

If a young person can prove that their disability related expenses are in excess of £20 per week then they can offset those expenses.

Disability related expenses are expenses that a young person has which are due to their disability – if they didn’t have the disability they wouldn’t have the additional expenses.

There’s a good app from Inclusion London which can help you work through what these might be:  https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/chat-bot/#

Some LAs are more open to agreeing DRE than others.

There’s a long list of possible DRE basically falling into 4 categories:

• Specialised items and services:  you may use things that are made especially to help you with your disability, such as a wheelchair or care support.  These things may have additional costs such as repairs and insurance
• Increased use of non-specialised items and services:  you may have to use things more because of your disability, such as transport or heating
• Higher cost non-specialised items and services:  you may have to use things that cost more than the average, such as home delivery

Universal Credit

• Income replacement benefit
• Means tested – the young person’s means, not parental means
• This is the main income for our young people when they have left education

The picture for students claiming UC is not simple – some will be able to claim and others won’t.

The starting point for UC is that students cannot claim UC as they are deemed to be ‘receiving education’ which is incompatible with working:

In UC, receiving education means that you are:

• A ‘qualifying young person’ – someone aged 16 to 19 who is on a course ofnon-advanced education for at least 12 hours a week, which they started,were accepted on or enrolled on before they turned 19. You can be aqualifying young person until the 31st August after your 19th birthday

• On a course of advanced education which is full-time (education above A level)
• On another course of full-time study or training for which you get a loan ora grant for your maintenance

• Not on any of the above types of course, but you are on a course which is incompatible with your work-related requirements

UC comes with work-related requirements which depend on your circumstances, including whether you have a limited capability for work.

The work coach has discretion to suspend or reduce work-related requirements

But there are several exemptions – focussing here on the exemptions likely to be relevant to our young people:

• Any student whose course falls outside the definition of ‘receivingeducation’, eg:

• part-time students
• some students in non-advanced education with no student income for maintenance, whose course doesn’t conflict with their work-related requirements

• Students with limited capability for work who also get Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment
• A student waiting to return to your course after taking time out for illnessor caring

The main exemption for our young people is likely to be that they have a limited capability for work and receive PIP.

If the yp has a LCW or LCWRA then their course is not incompatible with work requirements because they won’t have any work requirements – or if they do they will be manageable around their course.

If we have parents of young people here who are not likely to be deemed to have a limited capability for work it is going to be unlikely that they will be able to claim UC while still studying

They would have to convince their work coach that they are not ‘receiving education’ and this is not easy.  They would likely have work-requirements that would mean they have to look for work and potentially take a job to be able to get the payment.

Limited Capability for Work or Work Related Activities

• 2 groups – LCW and LCWRA
• LCW is determined by a Work Capability Assessment
• A paper assessment – might lead to an in person assessment
• A student has to have the LCW status BEFORE they become a student
  • This generally means that young people 16-19 and in school cannot claim UC as even if they get the LCW status they would not have it BEFORE starting their course
• The opportunity comes when a young person leaves school and starts a new course of study
  • As long as they already have the LCW status
  • This is essential for students going onto a degree – otherwise they will not be able to claim UC while studying

How do they get the LCW status?

• The WCA is usually triggered when a person applies for UC and declares that they have a disability or health condition
• This won’t work for young people currently in education
• Or even in the time between school ending and the next course starting
• as it can take weeks for a WCA to be carried out after a UC application
  • By which time they could be back in education
  • So they wouldn’t have the LCW status BEFORE they were in education
• 15 points or more on the WCA for LCW status
• For LCWRA status the young person also has to meet at least one of another set of criteria
  • Some of these are similar – or the same – as the 15 point category on the WCA
  • Failing that you might be able to demonstrate a substantial risk

New style ESA, credits only

• The way around this is to apply for new style ESA, credits only
• This won’t result in any money being paid as this benefit can only be paid to people who have worked and therefore made NI contributions
• But it does trigger a WCA!
• You may need to persevere – some parents are just told NO
• If you get this while the yp is still at school – ideally claim when they turn 16 – they will be able to claim UC when they finish school before starting their degree or other college course

WCA outcomes

• We do have capacity for work
  • Students will most likely NOT be able to claim UC
• We have a limited capacity for work – LCW
  • Students can claim UC and will have fewer work-requirements
  • Eg writing a CV, meeting with work coach
  • Probably not required to actually look for work
• No capacity for work
  • Students can claim UC with no conditions attached to the claim
  • Eligible for an additional payment

I recommend that you make the new style ESA, credits only claim once your young person turns 16 so it is in place for whenever they leave school

• Nothing is lost if they don’t continue in education
• But without the LCW status it is unlikely that they will be able to claim UC if they do continue studying

Once a young person has an LCW or LCWRA status this stays with them for future applications for UC

The requirement is to have an LCW and be in receipt of PIP

 How much would a young person get?

Standard allowance under 25	£311.68
Standard allowance over 25	£393.45
LCWRA – in addition	£416.19

 

There are other allowances but these are the ones most likely to apply to our young people.

I’m taking a degree and have a student loan for maintenance

Students on a degree course, or any course of study that provides a maintenance loan, will find their UC is affected

Maintenance loans are counted as income

• For most students the total loan is divided by 8 or 9 – which equate to the assessment periods of UC during term time
• It doesn’t include the long summer holiday
• An assessment period is a monthly period
• Each person has their own assessment period which starts from when their UC application is approved
• You will be deemed to have the loan by UC even if you don’t
• You will be deemed to have the maximum loan by UC even if you don’t and part of your loan is made up of parental contribution

Disability related loans or grants like the Disabled Students Allowance are not counted as income, nor the tuition fees.

Part of your maintenance loan if you are in receipt of PIP might be the Special Support Element/Grant – this is also disregarded by UC.

It appears that this element doesn’t actually give you any additional money over and above the maximum maintenance loan – it just means part of your loan is not counted as income for UC purposes.

Most students will find that their UC is wiped out by their maintenance loan.

For example:

Maximum maintenance loan	£11,374
Special support element	£4,221
Amount counted for UC	£7,153   (£11,375 – £4,221)
8 assessment periods	£894.13   (£7,153 divided by 8)
£110 disregard for each period	£784.13

• Your UC will be reduced by £784.13 per assessment period
• You can get UC during the summer vacations
• Your UC will reduce again when the new year starts

Working and UC if you have LCW or LCWRA

• You can work while receiving UC even if you have an LCW or LCWRA status
• These are the amounts you can earn before your benefit is affected:
  • You have help with rent – £404
  • You don’t have help with rent – £673
• No limit on the number of hours

ESA Support group

You can earn up to £183 per week before your benefit will be reduced

• Fewer than 16 hours per week
• When you earn over £183 your UC starts to reduce
  • It initially tapers off
  • For every £1 earned over £183 UC takes off 55p – leaving you with 45p

(ESA is a legacy benefit – you can’t apply for it but some of our young people are still in receipt of it – but they will be moved to UC most likely in 2025)

Is there a risk of losing the LCW or LCWRA status?

• Apparently, reviews of LCW/RA status are rare
• But I still think it would be wise to consider the amount of work you do and the type
• Think about why you have the LCW status
• This goes back to the Work Capability Assessment

Example:

• If you got your LCW status because of physical disability it might be unwise to have a job that has significant physical demands
  • But a job that has few physical demands might be fine
• If you got your LCW status because of mental health needs, perhaps difficulties with interacting with other people, it might be unwise to take a job as a sales assistant
  • But a backroom job that doesn’t require much social interaction might be fine
• If you have your LCW status because you can only work limited hours it might be unwise to take on a full time job

Free prescriptions and dental charges

• Once a yp turns 19 not automatic – even if in full time education
• Having a disability does not automatically entitle you to free prescriptions, dental charges, sight tests
• Having a disability benefit such as PIP does not qualify you – it is not means tested
• Receiving UC will mostly entitle you
  • But any other income is taken into account
  • And if you exceed the thresholds in any given month you will not be eligible in that month
• Some medical conditions are exempt as well

Other free or low cost options

• Cinema Card – CEA
• Limitless monthly cinema pass
• Freedom Pass
  • If you are not automatically entitled you can make a case
  • Young people who would be deemed unable to drive / pass the driving test can have a freedom pass
• There are theatre ticket programmes to get tickets at reduced rates
• Some venues have special prices
  • eg Wisley gardens allow a person on UC/ESA and up to 5 companions to enter for £1 each
  • Other venues might just allow the disabled person in at low cost
  • Always worth investigating or asking
• Carer goes free is quite common
• Look out for offers from carers’ organisations (for the carer!)